Pensioned mediators

Ex-judges as mediators ... Out of court and back to work ... No worry about the barristers' five year rule ... Issues for the judicial pension scheme and the bar rules 

Richard Rolfe, soon to retire from the NSW Dizzo after 11-and-a-half years of judging, will leave the bench and become a commercial mediator. 

The ranks of ex-judges, who have turned their experience and skills to mediation, are swelling at an impressive rate. 

Apart from the well known High Court, Supreme Court, Federal Court and Court of Appeal bigwigs, we're finding judges from lower down the food chain and from the Family Court joining in the spree. 

Judges can retire on their full pension, hang out their shingles as mediators, and get straight back into it without having to bother with any bar rule that constrains them from practising in their old courts.  

Peter Rose and Stephen O'Ryan, both former judges of the Family Court, are now successfully embedded in the mediation business. 

O'Ryan is back as a member of the bar with rooms at State Chambers, and can do family law work as a mediator that he would not be permitted to do as a barrister for five years after his departure from the bench. 

Rose does not appear listed online as a member of the NSW bar 'n' grill. 

Both he and O'Ryan had been members of 12 Wentworth/Selborne. 

Rose did 12-and-a-half years and O'Ryan 16-and-a-half years as Family Court judges before turning to mediation. 

Brian Jordan, another Family Court judge, who was appointed in July 1994 and resigned in December 2009, is going strong as a family law mediator in Brisbane. 

There's no shortage of barristerial comment about this trend. Questions are begged about the point of the judicial pension and the effectiveness of bar rules in relevant jurisdictions. 

The pension is supposed to underpin the essence of judicial independence - that judges can do their job without worrying about how to put a bit of fruit on the sideboard after they retire. 

The contemplation of having to drum-up customers for a post-judicial gig should not be a distraction. 

In any event, if they're trousering $5,000 to $10,000 a day as mediators they probably don't need the taxpayer subsidised pension. 

The bar rules in NSW are designed to create a hiatus between being a judge and an advocate in the same court. 

The rule is more about appearances - it's not a great look to be judging one day, and the next back as an advocate appearing before recently farewelled colleagues. 

There's a bit of disgruntlement about the way former judges can collect their pensions and continue to ply their trade, doing quite similar work. 

In the meantime, the Law Society is revising its solicitor mediator fees. The new rates are expected to be "competitive".